1994 Peugeot 106 XS beeing upgraded just a bit

This is my attempt to document how to fit a carpc and amp in a Peugeot 106 from 1994, some might say thats close to impossible and so was my thoughts as i started almost a year ago.

It's by no means the only way to do it, but I will try to explain my reasons as I go along.

There is not anything special about the car itself, other than the rear axle has been upgraded with nipples, so that I can lubricate the bearings with grease. Very much needed, since the bearings are not that well protected from water splash.

Also I have fitted a Webasto BBW 46 engine preheater, also almost impossible as there are no spaces, but in the end I found space between the left hand wheel arch and front bumber. But I need to move the bumber 1 cm forward and the same about the heater, as the wheel arc itself is not quite clear of the wheel when doing a full lock to lock.

I figured it was more easy to route cables and install if I gutted the car complete. And why not clean everything and fix paint visible inside while at it?

Head linning cleaned:

Dirt and nicotine all the way back from 1994:

All parts ripped sorted and each parts screws next to it. You might think that there are only a few common screws but peugeot uses a mix including torx.

Day 3 Cleanup (10-5-2010)

Today I did some cleanup, that mostly involved removing excess rust preventer oil that runs out at small holes etc. Doing that preps the car for at coat of paint, to cover scratches around the rear hatch and under the small rear windows. There is some rust under the rear seat, but the area is above the tank, with is a very snug fit, so I doubt that its more than surface rust, the can be fixed by sanding down and new primer and paint.

Plans for tomorrow: Get my sorry out of bed early and start taking the fabric of the rear seats and wash that. In the car my plan is to rip out the front seats and the carpet so that i can wash those also.

Some pics:

Day 4 Cleanup Part I (11-5-2010)

Ripped out the front seats and carpet and stripped one seat from dabric and threw that in the washer. The fabric from the rear seats came out nice and clean, done this before so I know the fabric can take this. Also plannend a few bits for power and speaker wire going to get that in a few min's before the store closes. Also going to order some primer and paint (maybe first tomorrow)

Plans for routeing the wires: Run the speaker wire on one side of the tunnel as far i can and then route them the last bit to the front doors along with the wires for central locking. To sense when headlights are on and when the screen are facing away from the driver I'm going to route a few thin wires down with the power cable.

Plan for mount pc and amps: Allready made an install box in floor plate that bolts on the back side of the rear seat. I will loose the split function, but since I hardly ever use the car for hauling big stuff, it will not be an issue. The floor plates are 22 mm which might seem massive, but the benefit is that i can put anything on top of the box with no risks. The box is in 2 halfs and will be covered with black filt. So it's out of the eye of thives etc. only very few wires are going in and out of the box... mainly power and speakers plus a max of 5 sense wires and arial wires of course. Going to post pics of the box later today.

Day 4 Cleanup Part II (11-5-2010)

Got speakerwire and some wire for power, for now I routed it along the tunnel with the power and sense wires, but in the end they will be on the other side of the tunnel. The car stereo shop was out of cable ties. Also did the last cleaning and routed the signal wires from the parkdistance meassurement unit and the rear view cam. Also did some work on my install box. Everything is very thight so the speakerwires and power has to go together, but the signal wires are on the other end of the amp's so it should not be a major problem. Powerwires are 25 square mm or close to 3 AWG, they are split up close to the amps in to 10 square mm or close to 7 AWG. Positive wire goes from the battery via a big fuse (have not seen the ampere figure on it) and straight to a distribution block. The same goes for the ground wire regarding thickness and how its split up, but not going to the same distribution block :-D Ground wire is bolted at one of the bolts for the seatbealt on the rear seat.

Pic of car as of now:

My mobile went haywire with the last pic, but you will get the idea i think

Pic of the install box:

Not much to see and say yet. The big amp will run my 4 speakers and the small one will run a free air type sub that will go between the rear spakers. The reason for that and not using my current sub is to free up the boot. The rear deck is strong enough to support the wheight. If vibrations become an issue I will make it more stiff with a sheet of MDF or something like it.

Wires will go out through the beam where i have allready drill end via'ed a cable that holds the signal for power on and HDD activity (the cable to the right) in that way no cable will be visible before i fold down the rear seat to expand the boot. And even then there will not be much to look at.

Plans for tomorrow: Try to gain access to the place where the stock speaker wire goes in to the front doors. I just pray to the all mighty that i dont have to pull the dash for that. But according to haynes pulling the dash should be as simple as releasing 5 bolts. Might do that as the vent system need a small upgrade. In the fall/winter season it tends to build up with a bit of water that runs back and forth. A small draining tube with a plug should do the trick. Also need to figure where to mount the clock for the preheater (small box located on last od todays in car pic), might just stick it to the center console, just under the dash using double stick tape.

While we are at double tape, getting it off is a pain... had to remove some under the rear windows and the most easy way is to rub with your tumb and wipe with alcohol, so the projets first injury, a thumb with a blister (partly filled with water like a normal one and some blood too)

Day 5 Break (12-5-2010)

The allmighty decided to take a leak (rain) and so far no chance that it will stop. So I'm going to check ID3 tags on my mp3's and maybe put fabric back on some of the seats, need some small wire ties for that.

Fabric back on seats, the part for your back on the rear seat will wait because I have to fit some bolts that holds the install case in place. Never going to get it off again. Soap and water did it perfect for the headlinng so it will have to do for the seats if they get stains in the future.

Plans for the rest of the evening and tomorrow: Try to figure all cables that has to go under the carpet so that i can get that cleaned and back in. Might prep the rear deck with wires etc so that it's ready to go back in.

Day 6 Dash/Fasia Out (13-5-2010)

The crazy dane did it, out with the dash and why? Parts of the dash blocks access to the grommet that holds the wires to the door, so to be able to run my 99,99% OFC speaker wire it had to go out. It does come with a few benefits such as checking where I could get signals for ignition and lights on etc. and trace those signals to the plugs. With that info I will be able to tab the signals at the mating plug and thus giving a much more clean install. So far I have decided to use the following signals:

Ignition

Headlights on

Handbrake

Might add signal for reverse, but my park distance messuring unit can be set to activate on distance, so its not needed.

Got the wires layed out loose and tomorrow I will fix them to the cars own harness of wires (power cable and signals). Speaker wires will be fixed with some heavy duty duct tape on the other side of the tunnel. Only I miss to run wires for the screen and microphone plus arial (DAB+FM). Put since the arial are going to be a roof mounted one, I will run the wires for that under the headlinning on one side and the microhpone on the other side. Going to order the 5 meter wire for the screen tomorrow, so that it can put under the carpet... or hmm... maybe under the headlinning too so that its away from noise, might think of that.

Todays pic's:

Quick sum of what will happen tomorrow:

Wires fixed with ties or duct tape. Speaker wires routed all the way in to the door. Cleaing up with soap and water to get dirt and dust out from under the dash. Dad-in-law did sometime ago add a wire for the rear wiper, but I have tested the wire on the dash to be fault free, might check where that added wire goes and fix it properly.

Comments on the car in general since I have now seen everthing on the inside: It's amazing that a car of that age does not show a single sign of rust, but me and my girlfriend are the second owners and i think it has been taken good care of. Major repairs for the last 5 years only comes down to a complete rear axle overhaul since both the bearings and shocks had it. Also the panel under the drivers door had it and a new one has been welded in. Other that that only stuff like brakes, timing belt etc. which is normal stuff.

Day 7 Part I Cable ties!! (14-5-2010)

Just went crazy with some cable ties, to get everything to look nice. Speakerwires almost done, need to drill a hole in the door and route the cable the last bit. The wire that dad-in-law have added was for the rear wiper. Going to re-route that under the carpet with the org wire and trace where and if there is a break in the org. wire, if not then i can simply pull it out. Next bit is to get the dash back in.

Some pics so far:

Day 7 Part II Dash, Carpet and some plastic back in (14-5-2010)

Just a quick update, decided to run arial cables and monitor cable at the roof so that i could get as much back in the car to make it look normal. Seets go back tomorrow moring as we are going to visit my mom and dad.

a few late pics:

Plans for tomorrow would be to install seats and maybe order the monitor cable and DAB arial. And those door panels need some cleaning too

Day 8 Seats back in and order some stuff (15-5-2010)

Got the front seats back in and checked that everything works. Ordered a DAB tuner, arial, 5 meter extension cable for my screen and a microphone. Not going to do much tomorrow other than maybe clean the doorpanels and the drivers seat that never got the big treatment. Still have to fit the clock for the engine preheater, there was less room between the center console than i expected. might skip the controls for seat heating since the heat elements in the seats are broken anyway.

Next update will be when i get the arial and microphone and extension cable for the monitor

No pics for today, the allmighty decided to take a pss and make storm at the same time

Day 15 Re-Install (22-5-2010)

Decided to reinstall my car pc to have a fresh start. Not much to say other than I install XP from a USB stick, which brings the install time to under an hour (from start to first boot)

Now some might not know how to install from a USB stick, and it can be tricky to setup but here a short list on how to do it:

With the HP format tool format the stick FAT32 and have it copy a windows 98 boot disk to the stick.

Check that you can boot to windows 98 command prompt on the stick, the stick will be drive C and your harddrive D

Take the stick to a running XP or whatever and make a folder ie. winxpsp2

I was lazy and copied my whole XP cd to this folder (winxpsp2)

At the root of the stick create a .bat file that contains this:

Code:

d:
cd winxpsp2
cd i386
winnt.exe /s:d:\winxpsp2\i386 /t:c:

save the file as sp2.bat in the root of the stick.

This batch file jumps to the D drive and starts the DOS part of the install, but it copies all install files to a temp dir on drive C.. Why that? When I boot the stick, it will be drive C and it might seem a bit odd, but I first format the D drive and then copy the win98 system files to the drive and then reboot and boot the harddrive, now the letters have changed and it makes sense.

When I format the harddrive I use Ranish Partition Manager 2.40.00 to create and format the harddrive to FAT32 and set the partion active. Why FAT32? Since win98 does not support NTFS the first part of the install has to be on a FAT32 drive. Ranish is placed in a folder on the usb stick

Now that the harddrive is formatted and ready boot the stick and type these commands:

Copy *.* d:\ (this copies all the files in the root of the stick to the harddrive)

Reboot and boot on the harddrive and type sp2

The install should now start as you know it

Then I installed (Everything saved on the stick in a sub-folder to make it easy and fast):

SP3

Drivers

Defrag programs:

Dirms to optimize the drive (dirms.com) and pagedefrag (google pagedefrag) to optimize pagefile and few other system files. Pagedefrag is set to run at boot with a 3 sec. delay. I plan to have a HORM system and it will go in the end. First run of pagedefrag can take very long time (up to 30 or 45 min)

Reg Supreme: Used to optimize/clean the reg files

AVG Antivirus Free Edition (just to be safe until HORM)

Tightvnc (remote desktop)

Spybot - S&D (only until HORM)

X-lite (Software IP Phone)

Ventrilo (A few friends uses that )

Xport (com port splitter)

Garmin Mobile pc (navi software)

Then the Frontend and plugins:

RoadRunner (May Release)

RRPDC (Park Distance Control)

RRTMS (Tire Pressure Monitor)

RRTC (Trafic Cams)

RRVM (Maintence)

Mobilephone.Net

RRMail

BASS (new player - not released yet)

That's all for today, now the pc is just getting the 75 updates since SP3.... and me? treating myself with a good nights sleep

Day 16 More Re-Install + Config (23-5-2010)

Now after a reboot it tells me to login, since we need it to log in by it self lets take care of that:

Click Start, Run and type CONTROL USERPASSWORDS2, and click Ok. Select the user account from the list (the account to which you want to automatically logon). Uncheck Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer option, and click Ok.

Check that there are no more updates.

After there where no more updates I started to tweak windows as per this guide, it's a very good guide for both beginners and the more "advanced" people:

Some might note that I do not use nlite, the main reason is the risk that I take out too much and end up with other stuff not working, to me it's simply not worth the risk.

Of course workgroup name changed to fit with my in-house pc's

more later

Day 18 Putting the rear back together (25-5-2010)

Have been working my butt off with the car. New arial and rear seats fitted with bolts to hold the install box. Also got a 12V to 19V adapter for the pc and a 12V to 5V adapter to power a 13 port usb hub. Also got the install box trimmed down so that it can fit on the back of the rear seat.

Plans for tomorrow is to get headlinning and plastic bits back in along with the rear seats and install box for a trial fit (might leave the box installed). For now the pc and amp's are layed out on a template in the kitchen.

No pics for today but will update with pics tomorrow

Day 19 Putting the rear car more together (26-5-2010)

Got headlinning and sun visors back in and one seatbelt for the rear seats back in. As I think I have streatched a muscle and have pains in the neck I did not take pictures. Basic I'm missing 3 plastic bits and the other seat belt for the rear seats. Also the floor mat for the boot is still out. Did not get to the part of the rear seats that supports your back, but I will try to get to that tomorrow. Of course the install box is not in yet. Dont know if I will do them yet as I have an idea to cover the naked metal parts in the boot with the same fabric/filt that I will use to cover the install box in. Half the naked metal (painted of course) was covered before but I took the sheets of fabric out (just glued on). Anyways I think I might get the car done by the end of the week or at monday.

Day 26 Putting the rear car more together (2-6-2010)

Well thought is was time for some update, first my neck. It was not a muscle, but an infection in the lumph system. After last update, it started out with fewer attacks. The attacks came in the afternoon, so I used the short time I had to put a few trim pieces back each day. But sadly no pics. So what is status now?:

Missing 2 trim pieces - As the microphone wire was just 1,5 Meters short i have to extend it. No sense covering it up now to take it off again later

Figure out how to power up and down - I like the idea of HORM (Hybernate Once - Resume Many) Cuts my boot time to arround 5 sec's and it gives me the option to cut power instant without trouble, might even transfer from harddrive to a usb stick as my install fit 11 GB everything included but not media stuff. Optimal would be a delayed on thing, so that pc boots 10 sec's after engine is running, but instant off. Another of those for the amps, so they come on 5 sec's after the pc starts. Will google for that, dont need a big fancy controller, just something simple that works.

All wires are in the boot, but I still need to make the final fit of the install box. I dont expect much trouble here, should a bolt not fit to holes in the box I will just drill a new hole. This has happen on first "out of car test fits", mostly the bolts sits just next to the hole and I end up with a retangular shape hole, no problem since I use washers.

The rear bumber still only fixed with one bolt, but the rear view cam did not have an "up" mark, so cant fix it with all bolt before the system runs. Not a big trouble since 90% is done from inside the boot.

Even thou this is installed in my girlfrineds car, it's concidered my hobby and the funds I can have fun for is not without limits, so I think next update will be in 14-30 days time. She badly needs a new PC for playing WOW. The pc has been build along side this project but still missing expensive parts like CPU etc. Well life is a game of giving a little and take a little.

I will update later with pics as I need to drive anyway, picking up parts for her PC

Day 33 On USB and EWF (9-6-2010)

Yesterday i cleaned up my install and cloned it to a usb stick and i'm now booting of that. All media are stored in My Documents and that is stored on the harddrive. Only need a guide for setting Ride Runner up to use my documents. The EWF/HORM guide worked almost complete, only problem is that xp thinks i'm not an admin and so i can not disable EWF... have to edit reg to do that.

Day 34 Back on harddrive (10-6-2010)

The horm idea did not work quite as it should and I ended up with a crashed system, so back on harddrive and trying to figure what went wrong

Day 40 Power controller (16-6-2010)

Today I made my shutdown/power on controller. By combining the following circuits I ended up with a controller that does this:

Turning ignition on

A pair of pins on the ser. port are not shorted, i use serialswitch plugin to hybernate the pc

approx 7 sec delay so that i can crank the engine

after the 7 sec delay pc is turned on, pc is set to power up when it gets power

approx 25 sec after ignition the amps are turned on, could be reduced later if needed

On ignition off:

A pair of pins on the ser. port are shorted, i use serialswitch plugin to hybernate the pc

the pc hybernates

after approx 10 sec power to pc and amps are cut, might need to adjust that so i know for sure pc is off

The curcuits:

Power off delay, has to come first so that it can hold power while pc hybernates, i use the example to the left.

Power on delay, this makes the relay active after aprox 7 sec's, a 470 uf cap. will raise that to aprox. 25 sec's.

Simple way to hybernate, i just replaced the pushbutton with a relay.

So here is how those 3 things works together:

When I turn the ignition on the first relay will activate right away, and send power to the next part (I just use 2 relays), also the relay that shorts 2 pins are activated so the pins are not shorted. As I crank the engine power will proberly go away but no problem since the pc won't get power after 7 sec's with power. Worst thing that can happen is that I have to wait 7 sec's after engine is running. Also the relay that short the pins in the ser. port might activate rapidly until the engine is running, but that is no problem either as the pc properly is not even powered yet. Now let us assume that power is there while cranking... after the keys is turned and first relay sends power to the next two, after the 7 sec's the first of the 2 next activates and power up the pc. 13 sec's after that the amps are turned on (might redice that to 7 sec's after the first one is active).... easy enough if you can follow the logic.

Now when I turn of the ignition, the relay that short pins on the ser. port de-activates and that will tell the pc to hybernate. about 10 sec's after that the first relay de-activates and cut power to amps and pc.

The controller is made on a prototype board and looks like this. It looks like a mess but everything is double checked, just need to secure wires and electronics with hot melt glue:

Also I have decied to skip the EWF/Horm Idea, to much can go wrong and my boot time from hybernation is just about 5-6 sec's so it's simply not worth the effort. My screen is not even powered up completly before pc is ready. So later today I think I will do a fresh install to make sure I have a solid base system.

Day 41 Tuner test (17-6-2010)

Today I took the tuner for at test drive together with my laptop... Just awesome what DAB can bring you... not a single dropout even at 130 km/h. FM was more bad due to the arial was not power during the test and that it's a DAB only arial.. but it got one FM station clear as FM can be.

Got the last trim piece back as I had to install a extension cable for the microphone.

Only missing the main fuse at the battery, but that will not go in before the install box is there

Next few days are going to be spent on wiring up the install box and maybe even install it in the boot

It has been a while, but yesterday I figured out that one of the sides on the install box had to be cut at an 30 degree angle to allow the back seat to lock at the upright pos. so I cut it and test fitted it. It fits but it's a bit thight so it needs to be sanded or another degree off.

Also cleaned up the wiring on my power controller and tested it. It powers the pc after 7 sec's and the amp 30 sec's after that. It holds the power for 30 sec's after I leave the car... more than enough for the pc to hybernate or for me to change my mind.

Next step would be to get the screen, but it might take another month or 1½... I might wire up a few things and get the lid for the install box done.

Day 73 Install box mounted with most hardware (19-7-2010)

Just a few pics of the box with most hardware mounted, the lid still needs to be covered in black filt like the buttom part.

Day 102 Install Box cleaned up and almost there (17-8-2010)

During the last month I have cleaned up my install box and revised my power controller as the former design had an error that caused it to rapid flip the relays at power off. The controller is now based on a picaxe chip that can be programmed as I like it. The functions are still the same thou. I have also expanded the design so that the e-brake/handbrake/parkbrake sends a signal to the serial port and the same for headlights. These can dim or change the skin mode and allow/disallow video. A few pics and schematic:

Almost everything is ready in the car. Only the signal to the E-brake is missing as i have to take out the passenger seat and connect the sense wire. Power wire from battery to boot is ready (but as the wise man I'm the fuse has been taken out). Microphone, Antenna and screen wires are routed and ready in boot. Rearwiev cam and park distance sensors are there. Have to make sure the grommet for the sensors dont pop out so that there one day will be a short in the 4 rear sensor wires. Car has been vacumed and cleaned so pretty much only missing the screen and install the box, about one days work left as the pc will be ready in advance.

Will make a status later

Day 102 Status (17-8-2010)

Sitting and reading my own worklog would be the best way to catch up on areas where I have diverted from my original plans so here in list form whaat is changed:

Car is not going to be repainted etc. It's a 14 year old lady and even thou she is has galvnic protected from doors down rust is starting to peep through. Should the car be restored to almost new it would cost more than a new or up 5 year old car would cost. As I dont plan to buy a car before my loans are paid, the carmakers might have come up with better things than I can get today. The reason why the car has not lasted longer is not that it's a french car, but due to heavly use of road salt (May God one day forbid that nasty habit and learn people to drive cars). If I should point out one bad thing on the car it must be the engine, it's leaking a bit of oil due to wear (and yes i change oil once or twice a year)

EWF + HORM: I skipped that as the pc can boot in under 10 sec's with the use of hybernation. And I just have to get it as a habit to start the car first and then get seatbelt on. By the time I'm ready to drive so will the pc be. Also the risk that you screw up something during installing EWF are to big (happened to me). Benefit is that I dont have to run commands etc. when I update the harddrive. Will make a solid backup once I have the perfect setup (and another backup of media files). This means that a few progrms like antivirus has to stay. But better play it safe.

I might skip the tweaking step if the load times are the same, give/take a few sec's. It can always be done at a later step if needed.

I found a way to eq and time-delay each speaker independently by means of software, it will be a combo of audiomulch and virtual audio cable plus the plugins for audiomulch. The advantage is that I can run a 5.1 setup on 4.1 speaker setup (phantom center). Might sound crazy but well we are all a bit nuts?

The next days are going to be used to power up the complete setup in house and set up software and check that the pc boots and hybernates like it should.

My setup in audiomulch are more or less like this:

Day 104 More Status (19-8-2010)

So I took and ATX PSU and shorted the green wire to a black to simulate 12V. Discovered that my powercontroller was wired wrong to the serial port, but was a quick fix. Everything works as expected but I discovered that the onboard sound are not up to the job since it's only 3 jacks on the back panel and 2 on a header (front panel), but the 3 on the back are going to be used as output and the front are for headphone and mic only, for some stupid reason they cant be retasked. But I need a line-in for the DAB tuner and a mic so only option is external usb sound. Found that the Aureon 5.1 USB MK II seems to be a OK unit. Initial I decided to have a usb case that can simulte cd-rom drive from a harddrive holding iso's of my cd's, but since all my cd's can fit on a usb stick that I can boot and install xp from, the idea is ditched. Also the DVD drive is out since it will be used very little and if I get a chance for longer roadtrips, I will know it well enough in advance so that I can transfer via wifi. For some reason the pc cant boot with the 13 port hub attached, but with a bit of carefull thinking I managed to connect everything with it with just one port left. Only thing left I have to find out is if i want TV and what tuner suits best with RR.

Day 105 Boot times (20-8-2010)

Just for the fun of it I messured my boot times from cold boot and resuming from hybernation

Cold Boot: 1:35

There are a 3 sec delay to choose os and a 3 sec abort timeout at page defrag (util to defrag the reg. database and system files)

Hyb. Resume: 0:24

Since I will always use hybernation the boot time is acceptable, I might try to tweak it later if I'm bored enough, but for now I will leave it as is.

Day 152 Sudden stop (07-10-2010)

Sadly dadinlaw passed away about a month ago. He sure will be missed, have spent lot of hours in his workshop on this one.
Now for the good part, he left us with a almost brand new car, this again means that i have to adjust for another car. A great part is allready done and i have simply not been in the mood to udate this worklog. I will make a new worklog once i'm ready to gut the car to make room for wire runs etc.

the wifi is going to be one those that are mounted on the inside of the window, mine is going to be placed at the rear wνndow, same type antenna for the 3G modem, the DAB antenna is a roof mount. I have been looking for antennas here: www.badland.co.uk